On Thursday evening, New Year’s Day, a friend of mine posted on Facebook: “Is it me, or is Dry January dragging a bit this year?” He received several “laughing” emojis as people got the joke. Sticking to the goal of not drinking alcohol for a month can be tough for some people.
In reality, of course, abstaining from alcohol for just 31 days is only a small goal. Indeed, it exemplifies a SMART goal. It is Specific – do not drink alcohol. It is Measurable – you count the number of drinks. It is Achievable – unless you are an alcoholic, going without alcohol for a month can be done. It is Realistic – nobody is asking you to give up for life. And it is Time-bound – it will end in 31 days. Yet many people struggle with the concept of Dry January, even though it is clearly a SMART goal.
However, that’s the problem. No matter what you have been taught on business training courses or learned from books on goal setting, there is plenty of research to show that SMART goals are not good enough. The concept is entirely flawed. Indeed, researchers have proposed new ways of setting goals that are superior.
The problem with SMART goal setting is two-fold. First, people overestimate the time it will take to achieve things. As a result, people tend to reach the goal sooner than expected. That makes them think the goal-setting idea has a weakness, so they stop setting goals. Secondly, people underestimate what they can achieve. As a result, when they reach the end of the SMART goal, they realise they could have done more. This reinforces the belief that the target was too low and the process was weak. Ultimately, people disengage from goal-setting, which is a bad idea, as people who set goals tend to outperform those who do not.
Another issue with SMART goals is that people are confused about the difference between “Achievable” and “Realistic”. Surely, if it is achievable, it must be realistic? There are other problems with SMART goal-setting, as German research has revealed. SMART goals do not work well in complex or dynamic situations, nor when an individual is not motivated by goals (that’s most people, by the way…!). If you look closely enough, you’ll find significant research showing that SMART goal setting is poorly suited to complex, long-term change. No wonder so many people give up on Dry January before the 31st.
None of this is news to my friend David Hyner. He is a motivational speaker who says that SMART goals “set us up for mediocrity…at best”. His research has shown that “massive goals” work way better than “SMART” ones. This week, I was looking at some old research articles and discovered one from a couple of years ago that adds support to David’s notion of “massive goals”.
The study from the University of Oregon showed that when people are set challenging goals to achieve, their attention and associated performance increase. However, when the goals are easily achieved, lapses in attention increase and people drift away from what they are meant to focus on. It’s really easy to lose sight of a small goal, such as a month without alcohol. But if your target were to give up for six months, for instance, you would pay more attention and thereby be more likely to achieve and, incidentally, have less fatigue in doing so.
So, here we are at the start of 2026, and you will doubtless have thought of some things you would like to achieve before 2027 begins. However, I’m sure you also know that almost all resolutions fail before the end of January, assuming they get started in the first place. Indeed, if you are among the army of people who bought a new gym membership for the start of the year, there is a significant chance you’ll never walk through the doors.
Two-thirds of gym memberships are never used, and among those who do turn up, half have given up before summer arrives. The goal of “getting fitter” or “losing a few pounds” is simply too easy, and therefore, people lose focus. Becoming an “Ironman” competitor or completing several marathons before the year is out sounds unrealistic and definitely not SMART. But if you set such a massive goal, you are more likely to achieve it than a much-reduced SMART goal.
One of the main reasons we do not meet our New Year’s Resolutions is that they fail to set us anything truly ambitious. Setting those SMART objectives at the start of the year is a DUMB idea. In fact, according to the high-performance coach, Brendon Burchard, your goals would be better off if they were DUMB – Dream-driven, Uplifting, Method-friendly, and Behaviour-triggered. In other words, it’s best to start the year being super-ambitious rather than being SMART.
DUMB goals, rather than SMART ones, could also work well for your entire business, as well as for you as an individual. For example, are you intending to “improve the organisational leadership” in 2026? Or are you seeking to become “sector-defining” leaders? Ambition is not just for individuals, but for organisations too.
